Engaged Learning

During last Friday's class, Prof. Ashley demonstrated in class what was' engaged learning'. First, he gave us the definition of engaged learning. Thereafter, he tapped on our prior knowledge of what engaged learning was by allowing us to form in groups of 3 or 4 to share about our previous experiences. At that point of time, all of us weren't really clear what was the concept of 'engaged learning'. All we had were bits and pieces of knowledge and so we were given 15 minutes to do that. We then had to record it down on pbwiki. Ha. To me, this is like collaboration with others where Prof. Ashley defined our scope of discussion and we had to share our experiences. Pbwiki then allowed us to store our reflections. We then shared with the class what we had as a group, and oh! Prof Ashley used some mind mapping software that was quite cool in class. I was quite amazed.

Thereafter, we were to map down the features of our group's learning activity to the indicators of engaged learning. We then discussed again in our group what improvements can we make to the engaged learning experience that we had. Through this journey, 'meaning making with scaffolds' was applied as Prof Ashley comes up with various learning stages and gives us guiding questions to cover up the missing links that we have in our concepts.

The last part was an individual work where we discover the dimension of engaged learning and the roles of students, teachers and ict. Also, we did a case study to put into application on what we have learnt. This is a shift where it is no longer a group work but an individual one. Prof Ashley mentioned that this is due to the various learning methods of students. Some learn more in groups, while others learn better when individual.

So the above was a recap of last week's lesson. Ha. Quite alot of information downloading I feel.

Oh! And something mentioned in class that I learnt was that a video played is not considered ICT. This is because video only involves a one-way learning while it does not really involves interaction and it is not a two-way thing. Hope I get this right.

Anyway, I recalled an experience of engaged learning during this module called "Science of Music". We were actually asked to compose a midi while learning about the various concepts and techniques throughout the 4 months. It was very interesting as we put into application the things that we learnt. I was just wondering how to make the lessons interesting along the way as well such that students are able to maximize their learning experience.

I think online games can be a good way to make learning interesting. For example, word challenge in facebook have caused my vocabulary to increase. Ha. That game requires us to form words from the six-letters that were given. At the end of the game, they would show the words that can be formed from the six letters. If there are words that looks unfamiliar, we could click on it and it would direct us to the page where the meaning of the word is given. To me, that game was interesting and yet at the same time, helps to improve my vocabulary. Also, because our scores would be compared with our friends, so in a way, a competition setting is there to challenge us to do better.

For biology and mathematics, all I can think of is online quizzes. Maybe there are online games that makes them interesting which I haven't come across yet. Then again, not all students learn by this way. I think it's not easy to find a learning method that suits the whole class. How do I exactly find a balance in that and use technology to aid me? I guess along my journey, I will gradually find out more. Ha.

Anyways, I think technology is constantly improving at such a rapid pace, I wonder if I really would ever catch up with them given that I'm such a laggy person in IT. Ha.

connecting student learning and technology (:

One thing that struck me in the reading was the difference between traditional teaching and a learner-centered teaching. In the past, teachers taught by asking the students to recite the passage that was given to them. In modern times, students are asked to take their own responsibility by doing research work and presenting it to the class. In this way, students are"forced" to take up ownership of their work. I believe that students who are generally more pro-active in their learning would gain more than the passive students.

Technology can be used in a learner-centered classroom through various ways.

1. Students are asked to conduct their own research about a particular topic. They can do this by gathering information from the internet. One consideration about this, I feel, is that students should be taught on how to discern the information that are from the web. This is because some of them might be misleading.
   
   
2. Students in a group can then converse their ideas through communication tools such as MSN, google chat etc. This allows them to come together for discussion if they could not find a convenient time and place for everyone to meet up. However, based on past experiences, online discussion usually ends up taking more time and the conversation tends to lose its focus.
   
   
3. Students can share the information that they've gathered by uploading them onto sharing folders such as Yahoo Groups, pbwiki, facebook, sharing folder on MSN etc. This allows easy sharing of information.
   
   
4. Students can present their information using Powerpoint slides, or collate/analyse data and present it in chart/graph forms via Microsoft Excel. All these help in the presentation of their project.
   
   
5. Various groups can then upload their project onto the web using blogspot or EduBlog or LiveJournal etc. for the whole class to view. This sharing of information through the internet can be practised among schools as well. All these technologies allow various groups of people from different places to come together to share their ideas.
   
   
6. Teachers can monitor the learning progress of the students throughout the whole year by asking their students to blog their weekly reflection down. This is done, for example, in the ICT module now.
   

All these technologies enable one to access information more easily and also, to gather resources from a wider scope. However, I feel that a teacher have to keep in mind that the technologies used should be relevant to the teaching objectives. One should not use it just for the sake of using it.

Oh! One random thought just came to my mind. For NA/NT classes, maybe one way to spark off their interest for class can be to play a video clip that is relevant to the topic that will be taught for the lesson. This can be considered as using technology during class also right? Ha.

my first lesson!! (:

Wow! I was looking at the blogskins and found the templates to be a little boring. So decided to explore for one, and yeah! My first experience changing blogskins. Haa. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Maybe it was a hint that I was lagging behind times.

Anyways, I have to be honest that I was totally lost in my first lesson. Firstly, I didn't know what ICT module was all about. All I knew was that it stands for Information and Communications Technology. I shall do a reflection of the lesson based on the KWLQ framework.

What I already KNOW about this week's topic

I had no preknowledge of what this week's topic was about. I did not know that there was the existance of masterplan of education till i came for class. So to me, it was a new revelation reading the various masterplans on the MOE webpage.

What I WANT to learn

I want to learn

1. what are the various kinds of technologies that one can use in class to make lessons more interesting. The only technology that I know how to incorporate it to lessons are powerpoint slides?
   
   
2. Through this module, I hope to understand how I can use technology to personalise learning and what does it mean.
   
   
3. Also, how does technology fulfills my objective when teaching and how relevant it can be.
   

What I LEARNED this week

1. I learned how to use pbwiki!!! I learned how to edit my page and insert pictures. All these seemed really foreign to me. It is a good introductory lesson as I believe that there are other modules which would require me to have a certain knowledge of the usage of pbwiki.
   
   
2. The Masterplans of Education. I learnt that MOE has been actively trying to integrate technology with the curriculum.

What QUESTIONS I still have

Not any at the moment (: